1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of computer networks and in particular to wireless networks in which there is no standard or shared protocol.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current commercial wireless communication architectures for computer networks are characterized by low effective bandwidth per user and are not well suited to low-cost, rapid scaling or expansion in large metropolitan areas. Current commercial wireless networks are usually limited in geographic extent and find applications only in special environments where multiple users are closely bound together by a common organizational association of some sort, which allows the imposition of a shared protocol and location for those users.
Developing outside of commercial wireless networks are more than two dozen noncommercial community wireless networking organizations established by volunteers in North America and several European countries.
A conventional wired computer network is a group of computers connected by physical cabling, either network cabling inside a building or telephone lines or data circuits outside a building. Traditionally, such connectivity has used copper wires to carry the electrical signals. Over the past two decades, fiber optic cable has become commonly used and is now included in this class of “wired” connectivity.
Over the past few years, a new way to create network connections has emerged which does not use wires. It is called wireless connectivity. Wireless connections all use some form of radio waves, e.g. microwaves at the higher end, to carry data from a transmitter to a receiver. Four different categories of wireless communications are generally used for network connectivity: radio, microwave, infrared, and satellite. Satellite is different from microwave only because its transmitter/receiver is not earth-bound. Satellites use microwave frequencies to carry their signals. All wireless technologies use standard computer networking technology saddled over a wireless medium: the airwaves. Because signals are transmitted across space, there is no cable between network access points, and, therefore, no monthly line charges for leasing a physical wire. This is wireless connectivity's major advantage.
Community wireless networking is the organization of a plurality of wireless users within radio range of each other, which share a common network protocol so that they can communicate with each other and use common resources. They are interconnected through radio links as opposed to hardwired lines, but when wirelessly interconnected, they can then tap into the hardwired network of the wirelessly connected user. As these wireless community networks develop, a plurality of different network protocols are adopted with no single protocol being used by all. While software translation between different network protocols is possible, such software translation requires a substantial amount of computing in a general microprocessor with unlimited electrical power. The major limitation of such community wireless networks is the need for a common protocol among all of them and the inability to undertake multihops within a wireless network or between multiple wireless networks.
Therefore what is needed is a low-power means for universally connecting or communicating multiple wireless networks together which use different network protocols.